BerthaBlog

So I was taking a marketing survey about paper towels. They wanted to know what brands I’ve seen television ads for in the last few months (not many; thanks to Tivo I usually fast-forward past them), and asked me to describe them.

I mentioned the Brawny ad—the one with the buff guy making a birthday cake for the lady of the house, wiping up spills with his Brawny paper towel, and presenting the cake and a fluffy little puppy to the viewer, all with the soft-core porn style narration over the top. And yes, that’s exactly how I described it in the survey.

They wanted to know what this ad said about the product, other than that it could wipe up spills…

“Brawny is a big, strong, handsome man who will cook, cleans up after himself, and likes puppies. What woman wouldn’t want that?”

My husband later said that marketing executives cannot detect sarcasm and will be using this description in high-powered board meetings to justify their advertising budget.

This morning around 7:00 we were awakened by a great commotion of squawking, screeching, fluttering birds. It sounded as if every mockingbird and blue jay in the neighborhood was raising hell right outside our bedroom window.

I peered out the window to see what the fuss was about. It wasn’t hard to spot the cause of the commotion—on the ground right below our window was a young hawk, clutching a smaller bird he had just captured in one talon.

He stayed there for several minutes, ducking the dive-bombing jays, until the ruckus died down enough for him to take off again. I had an excellent view of him. I’m fairly sure he was a red-tailed hawk. Man, he was gorgeous.